Lowest-rated 'DWTS' finale ever

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As much as fans seemed to love winners Derek Hough and Kellie Pickler, ratings were down for "Dancing with the Stars."

Story highlights

Tuesday night's show become the lowest-rated finale in the franchise's history

NBC's "The Voice" was down 11 percent versus last week

Fox came in third with a two-hour installment of "So You Think You Can Dance"

But Kellie Pickler was so popular!

In the end, though, the allure of the pixie-haired hoofer wasn't enough: Tuesday's two-hour finale of "Dancing with the Stars" only earned a 2.6 rating/7 share in adults 18-49, down 21% from last year's spring results (3.3/9 on May 22, 2012) to become the lowest-rated finale in the franchise's history, according to Nielsen. Since the show averaged 14.9 million viewers, ABC came in first for the night in eyeballs but second in the demo behind NBC, which was buoyed by "The Voice."

Speaking of which: NBC's singing competition, which earned a 3.1/9, was down 11 percent versus last week but it still ruled at 9 (where it averaged 9.9 million). It was preceded by a special about Oklahoma (2.0/6, 8.1 million) and followed by the Grimm finale (1.7/5, up 6% from last year, 5.2 million).

Fox came in third with a two-hour installment of "So You Think You Can Dance" (1.9/6, 4.5 million) while CBS trailed in fourth with a bunch of pesky "NCIS" repeats.